I made a few more changes to the promo to get it working better before I send it out. I decided to change the name to:
After seeing ILikeThesePhotos in print several times I was starting to think it sounded a little juvenile, not very professional and too one sided. Folio Browser is a little stiff but I can see it becoming a useful tool for Art Buyers and Photo Editors and I’d prefer it sounded professional (it’s kinda like when your daughter name’s the dog princess and the stupid thing gets lost and you have to drive around the neighborhood yelling princess at the top of your lungs).
The biggest change is that the links to photographers websites are direct. They don’t go to Flickr first. In fact you don’t even have to know Flickr is involved in any way. It just serves up the images for the thumbnail page. The other big change is that the title can now support a name and location for the photographer. I’ve heard from a few people that this would be a really useful addition. If anyone wants to help me out with the locations for all the photographers just visit the flickr page and leave a comment on each one (here). I may not have the time to get them all changed on my own.
I already have several requests to make region specific versions of this project (Canada, West Coast, Los Angeles, Mexico, Mid West) with different groups of editors selecting the final group. I think that’s a great next logical step and I’m excited to see if this could become a regular resource for people. Only time will tell.
The only major problem with the new version now is that it’s slower than the previous. See what you think for yourself:
Comments 23
A lot of hard work here and I thank you!
I mentioned this before although it is a little less necessary now with the folio browser, but if you could randomize the slideshow every now and again (hit random on the set order) it would even out the playing field, at least in the slideshow. In the browser it matters less because you see everyone at once.
Posted 23 Apr 2008 at 11:25 am ¶If you make regional versions of FolioBrowser, please don’t forget the Southeast. Thanks!
Posted 23 Apr 2008 at 12:01 pm ¶@Mr. Wright: I do not agree on the random slideshow. It seams to me there is an order to it, that make the slideshow flow (or maybe I’m making it up? but I do not think so) and it will be disturbing to see it randomized…
Posted 23 Apr 2008 at 12:14 pm ¶@APE: sorry to ask you this after all the job you did, but for some reason a part of the url of my site got excluded. So instead of my personal page we can get only to the home page of my agency site… so I’m impossible to find through my picture (red fleece with black hand and cigarette shot with strobe) if you could, please, put my name Giovanni Del Brenna as a title it would be of great help. Thanks for everything.
A few thoughts about it…
First, when you click on an image, it simply brings up a new page with the image in it. Instead, it would be best to bring up a lightbox with the image and some information about the photographer.
Second, when you return to the main page from the image once you click on it, you have to wait all over again for all of the thumbnails to load.
Other than that, I think this is a great idea. Hopefully I’ll be able to get in the next version!
Posted 23 Apr 2008 at 12:21 pm ¶Getting better and you are totally onto something. I would hit this up if for no other reason than to keep me on my toes. Would be great with regions as you suggest but I also think alphabetical may help. Without it I read it as your ranking of the photogs…just a habit and I know the world ain’t built just for me
yet (you listening Steve Jobs)
Posted 23 Apr 2008 at 1:01 pm ¶Definitely prefer the new version, despite the slower loading.
I also think Robert’s randomizer idea is pretty cool.
Posted 23 Apr 2008 at 1:18 pm ¶@Brett
It does lightbox the images, but some browsers don’t load the lightbox javascript until the entire page loads–so, if you hit an image before that, it just opens the image in a new page.
We could paginate the images (just show 20 per page) to help loading, but images on the last pages might not get the views they deserve …
Posted 23 Apr 2008 at 1:48 pm ¶@Erik Dungan
I should have figured that out, thanks for letting me know. I use Firefox with most scripts disabled so I hadn’t thought to enable anything for the page. It works for me now.
I think having the thumbnails paginated would go against the purpose of the page - being able to immediately view 300 photographers. At the same time, waiting for the thumbnails to load is very annoying. It’s a tough call.
Posted 23 Apr 2008 at 2:26 pm ¶Very nicely laid out, good job. It seems to me you love portrait work a lot. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE a nice portrait, but just seems “weird” that there is no “action/extreme action shots”…
I mean at the end of the day how many “head shots are on this page”…. Not much variety to me…
Jack
http://www.jackenglish.com
Posted 23 Apr 2008 at 2:28 pm ¶http://www.surfimages.com
Rob - thanks for taking the time and putting in the effort to pull this all together. I’m sure it will be appreciated all over the photo biz.
pt
Posted 23 Apr 2008 at 2:28 pm ¶@APE: THANKS A LOT! I really appreciate.
Posted 23 Apr 2008 at 2:45 pm ¶not sure if this is a concern…
“They don’t go to Flickr first. In fact you don’t even have to know Flickr is involved in any way. It just serves up the images for the thumbnail page”
ToS
Do link back to Flickr when you post your Flickr content elsewhere.
Posted 23 Apr 2008 at 3:06 pm ¶The Flickr service makes it possible to post content hosted on Flickr to outside web sites. However, pages on other web sites that display content hosted on flickr.com must provide a link from each photo or video back to its page on Flickr.
I like the randomizer idea too. The flickr hits # for the first few images compared to the last few (467 hits vs 24 hits) shows a big difference. Don’t think the randomizer would be needed if there wasn’t a lot of images, but in this case might be something to think about for the next batch. Great job over all.
Posted 23 Apr 2008 at 3:07 pm ¶Whilst we are on the topic of regions, there is this rather large continent we lot like to call Africa, would be super if you could think about that :0)
Other than that Rob, thanks for putting some serious time into this, I think a beer/champagne/dinner/whatever fund should be setup so us lot can show appreciation.
Posted 23 Apr 2008 at 3:07 pm ¶Oh, thanks for the flickr TOS hit. I was wondering about that. I’ll keep a link to the set on the page for sure.
I’ll see if Erik can get the links to open an new page so the thumbs don’t have to keep loading.
I’ll set one up for any region people want but there has to be participation from the majority of the top shooters in that area. I don’t think buyers will use a resource that isn’t fairly comprehensive.
I should be able to randomize it no problem.
@ Jack: Maybe it was a mistake to not include action but the audience of buyers seems so much smaller compared to portrait.
Posted 23 Apr 2008 at 3:54 pm ¶“I’ll set one up for any region people want but there has to be participation from the majority of the top shooters in that area.”
There has got to be hundreds of us in the adirondacks! no? what if second homes or tent sites counted?
Posted 23 Apr 2008 at 4:02 pm ¶I’m all for the randomazation of the slideshow (I’m second from last) but it does have a good flow as it is, on a selfish note you could just do a reverse order!
Posted 23 Apr 2008 at 10:50 pm ¶I like that the old school blue links have been banished.
As a dyslexic, I have a few ideas that might help me view the promo 100 times easier, and thus everyone else should be able to view it at lest 10 times easier
1. The website links should line up both vertically and horizontally, i.e. they should be in the same spot in each “image cell”.
2. Separate page with the same shooters organized by Categories such Lifestyle, Portrait, Fashion, Editorial ect. Photographers should not be limited to one category, they should be included in each category list which they fit.
3. What about a “shooting style” category or list as well, such as “Film” “Natural light” “Surreal”?
4. A random image should be selected from the promo pool and used as a banner image (every reload?), much like Flickr’s explorer page, thus providing exposure to “buried” images.
5. This one is defanately a future feature: A IP based cookie or Login based system so that you can see which photographers whose work you have already viewed.
Posted 24 Apr 2008 at 1:30 am ¶Will you be having another call for photographers for this? I just missed the last one!
Thanks and thanks for the great blog!
Posted 24 Apr 2008 at 10:51 am ¶Re regions - I think a U.K. version would be good
Michael
Posted 25 Apr 2008 at 8:07 am ¶Hi Rob,
I just recently discovered your blog (via “whats the jackonary”)
It is awsome! What a great vantage point….. thanks for sharing.
Cheers,
Francine Fleischer
http://www.francinefleischer.com
Posted 29 Apr 2008 at 9:21 am ¶I wasn’t reading your blog yet, so I missed the deadline for inclusion in this project! How do we submit our portfolios for inclusion?
Posted 29 Apr 2008 at 5:01 pm ¶Pretty good idea…
Posted 02 Jun 2008 at 11:49 am ¶Trackbacks & Pingbacks 2
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